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DISCOURSE 


PREACHED IN THE WESTMINSTER CHURCH, PROVIDENCE, R. I., 


Thursday, June 1, 1865, 


BT 


AUGUSTUS WOODBURY. 


PROVIDENCE. 


SIDNEY S. RIDER AND BROTHER. 


1865. 



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A B R A H AM L I N C O L X 



DISCOURSE 



PREACHED IN THE WESTMINSTER CHURCH, PROVIDENCE, R. I. 



Thursday, June 1, 1865, 



AUGUSTUS WOODBUEY 

II 




PROVIDENCE. 

IDNEY S. EIDER AND BROTHER 
1865. 







E^L 



Knowles, ANTiioNt & Co., Printers. 



DISCOURSE. 



Eom. XIV. 7.— No man dieth to himself. 

THE wave of sorrow that has swept over the Ameri- 
can Kepublic, for the ^eath of its Chief Magistrate, 
has by no means spent its force. It is now flowing back 
to us from the old world, bearing so rich and so complete 
a burden of sympathy and appreciation as almost to in- 
duce the feeling that we knew not the entire worth of 
him whom we have lost. The indications are too clear 
and unmistakable to deceive us. The expressions of 
aifection and esteem which have been made, both at home 
and abroad, are heartfelt and sincere. Even reluctant 
lips have spoken the praises of the dead President. 
Those who once scorned and ridiculed his homely sim- 
plicity now acknowledge their mistake, declare their 
repentance, and are earnest to assure the world that he 
was better than they thought. Certainly the man who 
has evoked such unanimous approval must have been 
no ordinary man. It was natural that our own people, 
in their gratitude for what he has done for them, should 
weave a chaplet for his tomb ; that, in their profound 
sense of bereavement, they should bow with deepest 
sorrow, as they felt that he was taken from them for- 



ever. Surely, this man was the most cordially beloved, 
the most widely respected of any man within the bor- 
ders of the Republic. The rich and the poor, the wise 
and the simple, the scholar and the unlettered seem to 
emulate one another as they unite in paying honor to 
his memory. Even his foes in arms against him had 
learned to admire him ; and they who fought him shed 
tears of genuine sorrow when they heard of the fatal deed 
that struck him out of life. All this, perhaps, was to 
be expected. But that this plain Republican, bringing 
an honest heart and a sao:acious mind to the direction 
of public aifairs in a time of unexampled difficulty, 
should so have won over to him the hearts of men 
throughout the civilized world, — should have so con- 
quered their prejudices, by the sheer and simple force 
of his upright and truthful character, — should have so 
closely touched and so completely moved the best part 
of human nature and of mankind — that was hardly to 
be hoped. We knew how coldly Europe had looked 
upon us ; how chary of its sympathy, nay, how hostile 
in its sentiments, it had been. We knew how utterly 
incongruous with all the preconceptions, the traditional 
ideas, the long established formalism of European soci- 
ety, our President, and the movement which he repre- 
sented and which he led, were thought to be. We 
knew how slow the conventionalism of the old world 
was to recognize any worth or any ability, except as it 
bore the stamp of regularity. It was almost too much 
to believe, that the old world would see with the eye of 
the new. We thought that we were partial, and that 
possibly a disinterested judgment, or a judgment that 
was affected by unfriendly prejudices might reverse our 
decision, and depreciate our estimate. But as we read 



what has been spoken and written on the other side of 
the ocean, and see with what hearty admiration every 
word is full, we come near to feeling that even our par- 
tiality was not generous enough, and that our estimate 
of Mr. Lincoln's worth was, after all, too low. Hostile 
eyes have seen excellences which we were slow to dis- 
cover, and they, who have refused to be our friends, 
have spoken words warmer than our own. It is a great 
triumph which has thus been achieved. It has been 
bravely won. It will be worthily enjoyed. 

The President of the United States has called us to- 
gether to renew the expression of our grief and to open 
once ao'ain the sources of consolation. It is eminently 
proper that this day should be set apart for a day of humil- 
iation and prayer. When the intelligence of the terrible 
misfortune that had overtaken the country, in the murder 
of Mr. Lincoln, was first brought to us, we were stunned — 
we were overpowered by the shock. We could not make 
it real to us. If we ventured upon an expression of our 
feelino's, it was necessarily feeble and broken. Our 
minds were bewildered by the strange experience. 
Our hearts were suffused by the emotions of grief which 
crowded them. We scarcely knew what to say, except 
as it became the utterance of the perplexing and per- 
plexed sentiments which filled our natures. We could 
not tell of how much we had been deprived, nor by 
what means Divine Providence would compensate our 
lo?s. We hardly dared to look forward to the future. 
We hoped, indeed, — for no grief is too severe to expel 
that sweet visitant from the soul, — yet we hoped with 
tremblino-. Now we mav look with more calmness and 
deliberation upon this event. We can judge somewhat 
of its character. We can perceive the indications of 
1* 



6 

the results which it promises to work out. We can 
better understand, and we can more correctly appre- 
ciate the character of the illustrious victim himself. 
We can read more plainly the lessons which the great 
Ruler of nations and the great Teacher of mankind would 
illustrate, enforce and apply. God give us grace to speak 
and to learn with trueand faithful hearts I 

It is needless now to recite the events of Mr. Lin- 
coln's life. They are familiar to our knowledge. His 
obscure parentage, his early privations, his struggle with 
circumstances, his victory over unpropitious influences 
and his efreat success in overcomino- the difficulties of 
his career, his brave, honest and hopeful persistence, till 
the humble laborer became the eloquent advocate, the 
honored statesman, and the trusted ruler of the most 
powerful nation of freemen in the world — all these things 
are well known. What need to recount them, except 
as the means of perceiving how Providence and events 
train a man for the o^reatest and noblest deeds ? For 
looking back over all these years, who now is not ready 
to say, that Divine Providence was educating this man, 
in this way, for the prominent part which he had to play 
in history ? Clearly and distinctly can we see the finger 
of God, in the continuous course of that career which 
led Abraham Lincoln to the Presidential chair of the 
United States. I have, upon former occasions during 
the progress of the rebellion, spoken of the exceeding 
good fortune which we enjoyed in having such a ruler 
at such a crisis in our national life. It was not for- 
tune — it was God who gave him to us, who made him 
what he was, and enabled him to do what he did for us 
and for the world. I think that he felt this, to a very 
great extent ; that he believed with all the solemn con- 



sciousness of such a faith, that he was an instrument in 
the hands of Divine Providence for accomplishing a 
certain important result for the American people. He 
had no pride in himself. He had but little confidence 
in his own strength. But he believed in the presence, 
the help and the inspiration of God, with an almost fatal- 
istic confidence and submissiveness. What was revealed 
to his conscience as the just and right thing to do, he 
did; and he did it because he felt that God had made 
it known to him. I think that you will perceive this 
implicit faith in the Divine superintendence of aflPairs 
among us, in all his State papers and his oflflcial cor- 
respondence. Yet in all this you find no trace of the 
enthusiast. His mind always worked calmly and delib- 
erately. His inspiration came to him with the slow 
movement of an ever-flowing stream, and in no case 
with the rapidity of a raging torrent. His well poised, 
evenly balanced reason was as regular in its reception 
of Divine influences as the tides of ocean beneath the 
influence of the moon. If he saw the right slowly, 
when he saw it, he saw it clearly. He saw it as a God- 
ordained principle. He knew that it must succeed at 
last, because God was on its side, and was carrying it 
through to its triumph, by the irresistible impulse of an 
Omnipotent will ! 

I look upon this unquestioning faith as the secret of 
his firmness of purpose and of execution in the work 
which God had entrusted to his hands. Perhaps we 
do not appreciate the magnitude of that work as we 
should. Recall, then, the fact, that the institution of 
slavery has been the great crucial experiment of our 
statesmanshij) for the last half century — nay, since the 
formation of the Constitution. What to do with this 



8 

element in the State — how to treat it — by what means 
to make the State secure either with it or against it — 
these have been the questions that have tried and tested 
all our public men and public measures. All our pub- 
lic men of any note, from the framers of the Constitu- 
tion down to the men of the present generation, have 
been obliged to meet the institution of slavery and the 
questions which it propounded both to their moral sense 
and their political sagacity. All have felt it to be 
wrong — have known that its existence was incompati- 
ble with a free State and the declarations of liberty 
which the State had made. Scarcely one has ventured 
to declare, in express terms, its wrongfulness and the 
necessity of its extirpation. The advocates of the insti- 
tution declared it divine, and attempted to prove it so. 
They defended it against the moral sense of the civil- 
ized world. But their very efforts betrayed that they 
had a latent consciousness that they were in the wrong. 
For if the institution were right, what need of defence ? 
Those who opposed the institution were not at all pre- 
pared to say, when the time came for the expression of 
their opinion, " Let it be destroyed I " Indeed, the 
people of the north were divided upon the subject. It 
had become a partizan power, either controlling the 
action of parties or decreeing their death. The politi- 
cal leaders of the north Avere also aspirants for office. 
Even those who were the ablest among them, and whose 
fame ox influence did not require an elevation to the 
chief magistracy to give it permanence, were still greedy 
for power. They thought that power was to be obtained 
by serving the Institution which yet they could not 
comimend. So, while some professed indifference, others 
attempted to bridge ovex the difficulty of their position 



9 

by compromise. If others still were moved by their 
moral sense and the power of conscience, to oppose the 
Institution even in the face of violence and death, there 
was always some sinister influence at work which baf- 
fled their eff^brts, and made their opposition of no eflect. 
A mistaken courtesy, a time-serving policy, bitterness 
of spirit, or pusillanimity of sentiment, or a temperament 
averse from strife, rendered all attempts abortive, and it 
seemed as though the nation was to be given over to 
the delusion that slavery was better than freedom, for 
the direction of the policy of the Republic. The states- 
men of the past had relied too much on the progress of 
events, and did not wish to cast a stigma upon the con- 
science of posterity. The Administrations of more 
recent times have thought that their safety lay in acqui- 
escence, and so they simply and basely capitulated to 
the power which they deemed irresistible. 

It was reserved — wisely reserved, we now can say^ 
for the honest mind and the fearless conscience of 
Abraham Lincoln to declare the entire truth, and to 
apply the effectual remedy. " I believe this govern- 
ment cannot endure permanently half slave and half 
free. I do not expect this Union to be dissolved. I do 
not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will 
cease to be divided. It will become all one thino-, or 
all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will ar- 
rest the further spread of it, and place it where the 
public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the 
course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will 
push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all 
the States, old as well as new — North as well as 
South." That was said at Springfield, 111., June ITth, 
1858. In September, 1859, at Cincinnati, Mr. Lincoln 



10 

used the following language : " I think slavery is 
wrong, morally and politically. I desire that it should 
be no further spread in these United States, and I 
should not object if it should gradually terminate in the 
whole Union." * * * " Whoever desires the preven- 
tion of the spread of slavery and the nationalization 
of that institution, yields all, when he yields to any 
policy that either recognizes it as being right or as 
being an indifferent thing. Nothing will make you 
successful but setting up a policy which shall treat the 
thing as being wrong." At the close of the very re- 
markable address which Mr. Lincoln delivered at the 
Cooper Institute, New York, February 27th, 1860, he 
expressed himself in this way : " If our sense of duty 
forbids [us to allow the spread of slavery into the na- 
tional territories and the free States,] let us stand by 
our duty, fearlessly and effectively. Let us be diverted 
by none of those sophistical contrivances, wherewith 
we are so industriously plied and belabored ; contriv- 
ances, such as groping for some middle ground between 
right and the wrong, — vain as the search for a man who 
should be neither a living man nor a dead man ; such 
as a policy of ' don't care,' on a question about which 
all true men do care ; such as Union appeals, beseech- 
ing true Union men to yield to disunionists, — reversing 
the divine rule, and calling not the sinners, but the 
righteous to repentance ; such as invocations to Wash- 
ington, imploring men to unsay what Washington said, 
and undo what Washington did. Neither let us be 
slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, 
nor frightened from it by menace of destruction to the 
government, or of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have 
faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to 



11 

the end, dare to do our duty, as we understand it." I 
think that this opinion may be stated briefly thus : " The 
government of the United States cannot endure half 
slave, half free. It must be either wholly one or the 
other. It cannot be all slave. It must be all free. It 
is the duty of the American people to prevent the one — 
to accomplish the other." 

There is the statement, homely and quaint as it may 
be, but entire and true. It was declared without bit- 
terness. It was declared without fear. It was declared 
without distrust. We were accustomed to think it a 
very harmless statement. We did not understand how 
pregnant it was with wisdom and with truth. We 
thought it strange, that the people of the Southern 
States should be so powerfully wrought up with indig- 
nation at such a simple declaration. Why should they 
resist, even to blood, the election of the man who made 
it ? It was because they saw, more readily than we, 
that it touched the very heart and marrow of the whole 
subject. The calmness and deliberation of the state- 
ment only made it more forcible. They knew that the 
man who could reach such a conclusion as that, as the 
result of the honest convictions of his soul, — w4io could 
state it so clearly, and could adhere to it so faithfully, — 
was neither to be cajoled, nor aflPrighted,^ nor moved 
from his conviction by allurement, threats or force. 
They knew that they must surrender to, the force of his 
judgment and his will, or that they must destroy the 
government which was to be administered according to 
that principle. They madly chose the latter course, 
and, after four years of unavailing struggle with the 
patient, inflexible man who impersonated the principle, 



12 

AYere compelled to submit to a govermnent which is 
hereforth to be wholly free ! 

Yet Mr. Lincoln, in taking this position, always re- 
membered that, as President of the United States, he 
was under certain Constitutional obligations. He was 
determined to save the nation according to the princi- 
ples of the Declaration of Independence. But he was 
careful not to allow his emotions to govern his conduct, 
while his intellect was not clear as to the proper and 
the right course to pursue. We know that he was 
fully as earnest for the liberty of the bondman as any 
man could possibly be ; that he was resolute to admin- 
ister the government in the spirit of justice. To play 
the part of the Emancipator of a race — dazzling as such 
an enterprise might be — was still only to be undertaken 
with the deepest sense of responsibility, and not with 
any feeling of ambition. Many persons thought that 
he was slow in coming to the conclusion to issue the 
Proclamation of Emancipation. So did not I. You 
know how I counselled patience. You know how fully 
such patience was rewarded. For when the Proclama- 
tion was issued, no word of it had to be re-written. 
Having satisfied himself that he possessed both the 
power and the right — feeling all the while, with sensi- 
tive finger, the pulse of the people — he placed his name 
to that sublime production. Then his word was, that 
he should not " attempt to retract or modify the proc- 
lamation." Still later, it was, that if the people desired 
any retrograde policy, some other, and not he, must be 
selected to carry out their wishes. 

It is to be observed, that Mr. Lincoln adopted the 
opinions which he held, after the most mature consider- 
ation, thus precluding the possibility of their retraction. 



18 

It is also to be observed, thai he expressed them with- 
out the slightest shade of personal animosity. I do not 
believe that there was the remotest sentiment of vindic- 
tiveness or revenge in his nature, nor even — what is 
the great vice of politicians — of envy or rivalry. We 
all know that our political discussions are conducted 
with great asperity and bitterness of feeling on both 
sides. But I think that we can safely challenge the 
production of an expression of such sentiments in any 
of Mr. Lincoln's addresses — numerous as they were, 
and delivered before excited and excitable popular 
assemblies. He never seems to have lost his temper ; 
never says a sharp thing for effect ; never indulges in 
personal abuse. It is true, that he often has occasion 
to correct some misrepresentation, or to refute some 
slander which his opponents brought against him. But 
it is always done with such good-humored courtesy 
and such complete self-command as to show that malice 
was a stranger to his heart, and ill-nature had no abid- 
ing place within him. I do not believe that he ever 
harbored a single feeling of enmity against any person 
in the wide world. At all events, he never betrayed 
the existence of any such feeling amid all the strifes 
and excitements of the j^olitical controversies in which 
he was engaged. 

Particularly is this trait of character to be noticed 
during the prevalence of our civil war. These interne- 
cine strifes are the most prolific of bad and hateful pas- 
sions. They are the bloodiest strifes in history. When 
brother arms against brother, the enmity which is 
aroused is of the very worst and most irreconcilable 
kind. Mr. Lincoln has been made the object of calumny 
of the very blackest nature. Yet has he never, in a 
2 



14 

single instance, shown a spirit of revenge. All his 
appeals to the people of the South, both before and 
after his election, have been of the kindest, as well as 
of the firmest character. While they, and their sympa- 
thizers abroad, heaped upon him the most opprobrious 
epithets ; while they made him the subject of vile cari- 
cature and scurrilous jesting ; he remained calm, quiet, 
unruffled, and not to be provoked, in any manner, to an 
angry remark, or a vindictive replication. Uniformly 
forbearino: to foreiorn nations, holdincr out the olive- 
branch of peace and repeated offer of pardon to his 
misguided fellow-countrymen, he still would not allow 
himself the easy satisfaction of vengeance, when his for- 
bearance was met with additional taunts, and his offers 
of mercy were rejected with scorn. At all times, he 
preserved that equableness and equanimity of mind, 
which is the index of a really good and great charac- 
ter. Enmity could not move him from the even balance 
which he kept. Disaster and defeat could not depress 
him into undue despondency. Victory could not lift 
him into unseemly exultation. The sublime faith which 
he had in Divine Providence wrouo^ht in him a calm 
reliance upon himself. With such completeness of mind 
and soul, he could well afford to forego the pleasure of 
revenge, and wait with patience for time and events to 
prove his wisdom and integrity, to confound his ene- 
mies, and establish his good name upon foundations 
which never could be moved. Nor did he judge 
wrongly, for time and events did vindicate him, and 
compelled even those who ridiculed him worst, to say : 

" Yes, he had lived to shame me from my sneer, 
To lame my pencil, and confute my jien, — 
To make me own this hind of princes peer. 
This rail-splitter, a true-born king of men. 



10 

"My shallow judgment I had learnt to rue, 
Noting how to occasion's height he rose ; 
How his quaint wit made home-truth seem more true, 
How, iron-like, his temper grew by blows. 

" How humble, yet how hopeful he could be; 
How in good fortune and in ill the same; 
Nor bitter in success, nor boastful he. 
Thirsty for gold, nor feverish for fame. 

"He went about his work— such work as few 
Ever had laid on head and heart and hand — 
As one who knows where there's a task to do, 
Man's honest will must Heaven's good grace command; 

" Who trusts the strength will, with the burden, grow, 
That God makes instruments to woi'k His will, 
If but that will we can arrive to know. 
Nor tamper with the weights of good and ill." 

It Is to be observed, that our President had great firm- 
ness, combined in just proportion with Ids prentleness of 
spirit. Said a friend to me, just before Mr. Lincohi's 
first Inauguration : " Have you ever seen the President 
elect?" "Yes," — and I mentioned the time, when he 
addressed a large audience in Pallroad Hall, in this city, 
during his visit to the East, in the early part of 1860. 
" What is your opinion of him ? Has he the requisite 
firmness for the crisis which Is upon the country ? Is he 
like Jackson?" I answered: "Mr. Lincoln is a man 
thoroughly honest in his convictions, and devoted to 
what he believes to be right. He may be slow in mak- 
ing up his mind. But when he has once settled upon 
any point, you may be sure that he will never be moved 
from It. He will be firm as Jackson, without Jackson's 
impetuosity." I certainly would claim no prescience 
or sagacity in such a matter as this, because Mr. Lin- 
coln's character was just as open then as it is now, to 
any one wdio chose to study it carefully and without 






16 

prejudice. But I have seen no occasion, since that time, 
for forming any different opinion. Whenever Mr. Lin- 
coln was satisfied he was right, and was doing right, 
he was inflexibly faithful to his conviction. He would 
always hear advice — and no man ever had more offered 
to him. He would always endure what he called the 
" pressure " of other men's opinions. But he had his 
own opinions. He convinced himself, and when thus 
convinced, he took the step which commended itself 
to his judgment — a step which was seldom or never 
to be retraced, — and which in the end commended itself 
as the wisest to the judgment of others. 

There was observable in Mr. Lincoln a complete hon- 
esty of thought, purpose, utterance and deed. Like 
the upright man, of whom the Psalmist sings, he spoke 
*' the truth in his heart." His political opponents used 
to say, when we brought forward this trait in his char- 
acter, " Oh, yes, he is an honest man, but it requires 
something more than honesty to govern a State."' That 
is true, but I claim for Mr. Lincoln that he had that 
" something more." Moreover, I claim, that his hon- 
esty of heart and mind clarified his judgment, and 
increased the real administrative power which he pos- 
sessed. The honesty that was in his heart did not per- 
mit him to say a false or cowardly or mean word, or to 
do a false, cowardly or mean act. He would not utter 
his opinions until they were perfectly clear to him as 
true beyond question. He would not adopt a line of 
policy until he was positively sure that he could follow 
it to its results with perfect safety to the public weal. 
When he was thus sure of himself that he was right, 
he went on to carry out his convictions. Scarcely one 
of those convictions was he ever compelled to revise. 



17 

He seemed to be rebuilding, piece by piece, the struc- 
ture of the State, which had been so rudely shaken. 
Every piece was perfect in its way and its place, till at 
last, when the work was completed, we looked on with 
amazement, and said : '' Behold, what a master-piece, 
made by a master hand !" An honest man ! Yes. We 
have begun to understand, that such a man is " the no- 
blest work of God !" It was upon the basis of his native 
truthfulness that his character was founded. From 
that basis, it arose strong, stable, secure. He wrought 
within himself, and in the State, by the plumb-line of 
truth ; and when the toil was finished, it needed no re- 
enforcement or repair. 

It has sometimes been objected to Mr. Lincoln, that 
he did not, in his private intercourse and public bearing, 
exhibit sufficient dignity of manner or seriousness of 
speech. Some superficial people said : " We want a 
gentleman at the head of aifairs ''—meaning by " gen- 
tleman," a courtly, polished man, varnished over by the 
gloss of manners. It is the charm of the late President's 
character, that he had no varnish to his honest and 
sincere integrity. He never pretended to any accom- 
plishment which he did not possess. The people had 
elected Abraham Lincoln, and Abraham Lincoln, 
the man, they must have for President. His kindliness of 
heart and his truthfulness of mind manifested far more 
of the true gentleman than any courtliness of manner 
could do. We must remember, also, that Mr. Lincoln's 
jocoseness was partly natural and partly an instrument 
to serve his own purposes. He was really a grave and 
serious man, and if he indulged in witticisms at unsea- 
sonable moments, it was for the purpose of relieving 
himself from a burden which would otherwise have be- 
2* 



18 

come insupportable. But there was another purpose 
which he had in view. There were times when he was 
compelled by his position, to give audience to the most 
impertinent of advisers, and to men who desired, for 
their own private profit, to gain some knowledge of his 
plans and purposes. What better method could possi- 
bly be devised to dismiss such offensive intruders, than 
by sending them away no wiser than they came, except 
by the addition of some anecdote which conveyed to 
them a mild reproof, while it assured them of the hope- 
lessness of their undertakino-? There was still another 
reason. Sometimes he would stop in the midst of a 
friendly discussion, to relate a story. But during the 
relation, he would carry on in his mind two distinct 
processes — the exercise of memory which was subordi- 
nate to another — the reconsideration of the subject un- 
der debate and the ascertainment of the next step to be 
taken. When he had fully satisfied himself as to the 
best course to pursue, he stopped his anecdote and went 
on, with unexampled clearness, to develop the point 
which he had been thinking out, All the while that 
he was telling his story he was gauging his man. There 
is this also to be noticed, that Mr. Lincoln's jocoseness 
had more wisdom than most men's gravest thouohts. 
AVhat was the result of the application of such a 
character to questions of administration and the policy 
of government ? It was to achieve a complete success 
in the midst of the most trying and the severest diffi- 
culties. A civil war presents to an ambitious ruler the 
most favorable opportunity for self-aggrandizement, in 
the name of patriotism. He can, if he chooses, destroy 
the liberties of his country, for the assumed sake of pre- 
serving his country. He may act the despot. He may 



19 

set aside the laws and the Constitution, on the plea of 
military necessity. He may secure his appointment as 
sole dictator, or he may snatch imperial authority from 
the people, by a coup d^etat. He may make himself 
a Ca3sar or a Napoleon, on the shallow pretext, that it 
is " to trace out to peoples the paths they ought to fol- 
low." It is possible that during the prevalence of the 
rebellion, there were some among us who wished that 
the contest would develop some one man of the type 
of Ciiesar or Napoleon, whose supreme will should be- 
come the director of the public sentiment and the pub- 
lic policy. The contest did develop such a man, but 
of a higher type. Mr. Lincoln turned away from every 
temptation to make the Presidential chair a throne. 
He regarded himself as at all times responsible to God, 
and to the people who had elected him their ruler. He 
preserved the Constitution inviolate, seeking only to 
amend it in the proper, the prescribed way. He obeyed 
the laws. He referred his authority to the people, and 
calmly awaited their verdict upon his course. When 
that verdict was one of approval, he assumed office once 
more, with even a profounder sense of responsibility 
and duty, if possible ; and in that most solemn and 
affecting of State-papers, — his last inaugural address, — 
he laid open his heart to the world, as that of a man 
whose only ends were the performance of his duty, the 
security of his country's welfare, and the service of his 
God. So powerfully, by the exhibition of such charac- 
teristics, had he wrought upon the minds of his coun- 
trymen, that they had all the benefits of Cajsarism 
without any of its evils. So completely had he gath- 
ered up all our confidence and trust, that we bowed to 
his decisions and to his will with unquestioning obe- 



20 

dience. We felt that he was always right and always 
wise. If, at any time, we had become impatient, or if 
we questioned his sagacity, we had only to wait to per- 
ceive how much more faithful and wise he was than we. 
He was a Caesar without a Caesar's ambition. In him, 
the American idea, which he embodied and expressed, 
was proved to be better than any idea Naj)oleonic. For 
it was his will, exercised in his true and honest way, 
by which, as has been happily expressed by an English 
writer, " he had risen gradually above circumstances, 
till his enemies denounced him as an autocrat, — till his 
ministers became clerks, his generals instruments, his 
envoys agents to carry out his commands. When once 
resolved on his course, no politicians ventured to dictate 
to him, no general to disobey him, no state to lock the 
wheels of the machine. In the end, he said once, ' the 
decision must rest with me ;' and the people had learned 
to know that it was best that it should so rest." Thus 
he carried us through the conflict, without endangering 
for a moment the liberties of the people, and at the end, 
no loyal man had just cause of complaint of his public 
measures. He really preserved the Eepublic, and even 
made it stronger than ever before. The purest patriot 
himself, he trained the people to as pure a loyalty. So 
well had he educated us in the school of self-govern- 
ment, over which he has presided, that, when his life 
was taken, filling all our hearts with untold sorrow, the 
shock of his death did not so much as jar the delicate 
and complicated machinery of our institutions. He 
crushed a gigantic rebellion ; he brought a civil war 
of unexampled magnitude to an end, and he left his 
country stronger, freer and better than when he as- 
sumed the rule. 



21 

Consider what the result has been with his opponents 
and enemies. We have been told that the Southern 
leaders were the fittest of all for government. They 
were trained to politics and arms from childhood. 
They assumed to be the born rulers of the American 
State. A long career of official life had familiarized 
them with all public affairs. We have even been told 
by the degenerate lips of Northern men, that they ex- 
hibited a superior refinement, generosity and chivalry. 
They certainly professed to have a superior astuteness 
and ability, and their pretensions to be the aristocracy 
of the country were absolutely insufferable. Yet with 
all this skill in governing, this experience in affairs, 
this prescriptive right to rule, this pretended dignity 
and pre-eminence, they have been utterly defeated and 
humiliated, by the simple, unpractised, but sincere, hon- 
est and persistent man of the people, the genuine repre- 
sentative of the true democracy of the north. Never 
has there been a finer illustration of the manner in 
which virtue vindicates its supremacy, and proves that 
there is nothing which it cannot conquer. Jefferson 
Davis, with all his accomplishments in politics, his sub- 
tlety, his state-craft and his unscrupulous ability, has 
been proved, by the relentless logic of events, to be no 
match for the unpretending, simple-hearted, conscien- 
tious integrity of Abraham Lincoln. The politicians 
of- the South, born to fight and to govern ! They have 
strained every nerve, exhausted every resource, tried 
every expedient, and yet they have completely, inglo- 
riously failed, — the last act in the drama of the rebel- 
lion, changing, like the scenes of a theatre, from the 
darkest tragedy to the broadest farce. One miserable 
fallacy at least has been exposed before the eye of every 



22 

observer, and the last paean has, I think, been sung to 
the ability, the statesmanship, the heroism, the chivalry 
of the South. 

Consider what the result has been with the hostile 
opinions of the enemies of the American Republic 
abroad. The character of our people has never been 
so completely misappreciated, nor so grossly misrepre- 
sented, in Europe, as during the prevalence of the rebel- 
lion. The London Times^ which has never been fair 
towards us, followed by its appropriate retinue, has 
frequently indulged in predictions of our ruin, which as 
frequently have been falsified. The Continental press, 
with a few honorable exceptions, has never failed to 
magnify every temporary reverse, and to cast the sym- 
pathies of the people whom it represented, into the scale 
of the rebellion's cause. No opportunity for throwing 
reproach upon us has been lost. Every success has 
been depreciated. Every humane measure h«s been 
derided. But the day of success came, and the voice 
of detraction was hushed. Gradually the clouds that 
had gathered about us dispersed. The light shone in 
upon the minds of those whom prejudice and antipathy 
had blinded. The true greatness of our Kuler became 
slowly manifest even to the most unfriendly eyes. 
When the intelligence of his death reached Europe, but 
one voice of commendation arose, and the journals of 
the old world confessed that they had mistaken and un- 
dervalued the man. The English House of Lords — 
the very seat and centre of the aristocracy of Europe — 
disregarded all precedent, and voted an address of sym- 
pathy and condolence to the American government. 
The " plain backwoodsman," " the village-lawyer, of 
Illinois," as they used to call him, had conquered. 



23 

Here Is the chief triumph of all. It is the triumph of 
the simple manhood of Abraham Lincoln over the 
prejudices of centuries, and the traditions of the most 
conventional of aristocracies. Let no one say, hence- 
forth, that character has no power. Look upon this 
wonderful miracle which it has performed, and ac- 
knowledge its empire ! 

I have forborne to illustrate the different points which 
I have made, by quotations from Mr. Lincoln's speeches 
and State papers, because, had I allowed myself to 
make such extracts, I should hardly have known where 
to stop. Mr. Lincoln's style is peculiarly felicitous and 
lucid, though it may sometimes violate the technical 
rules of rhetoric. There is something fascinating about 
his writings and his pubUshed addresses. Everywhere 
they exhibit the same peculiar characteristics, every- 
where we see the same sagacity of mind, the same clear- 
ness of perception, the same carefulness and truthfulness 
of utterance. Before his election to the Presidency he 
was well known, at the West, as one of the most forcible 
and effective speakers that ever addressed a public audi- 
ence. His famous debate with Mr. Douglas, — in which 
he showed himself certainly the equal of that accom- 
plished debater in all the qualities of popular oratory, 
and greatly his superior in temper and courtesy, and 
even power of argument, — made him better known than 
before throughout the country. But that which made 
him most pronunent before the people of this section of 
the land, was the very statesmanlike and conclusive ad- 
dress which he delivered at the Cooper Institute, on 
the 27th of February, 1860. There is in this address a 
wealth of political knowledge truly marvellous. I 
doubt, if any address of a similar character, delivered 



24 

within the last quarter of a century by any of our pub- 
lic men, can surpass it in this respect. An edition of 
this address was published at the time, under the super- 
vision of two competent gentlemen, who express in the 
preface, their great surprise at the manifest labor, re- 
search and fidelity of its author, both in his selections 
and his omissions. Without a single instance of parade 
in learning, Mr. Lincoln, in delivering a political 
speech, really produced a historical work of the great- 
est value. " A single, easy, simple sentence, of plain 
Anglo-Saxon words," say the editors, " contains a 
chapter of history that, in some instances, has taken 
days of labor to verify, and which must have cost the 
author months of investigation to acquire." The Mes- 
sages, Proclamations, and addresses produced during 
the Presidency of Mr. Lincoln, are already too familiar 
to require comment. The three most prominent of 
these productions, the Proclamation of Emancipation, 
which delivered a whole race from bondage ; his ad- 
dress at Gettysburg, which ranks well with the finest 
utterances of classic eloquence ; his last Inaugural ad- 
dress, which breathed a spirit of piety and faith that 
touched all christian hearts throughout the land, and 
even throughout the world, will make his name and 
memory fragrant for centuries to come. Mr. Lincoln, 
by his course in office and his broad statesmanship, has 
gradually mounted, step by step, to his place in history 
as one of the wisest and certainly the most beneficent of 
our rulers. He never desired war. He hoped to avert 
it. But when it came, he accepted it ; still striving to 
diminish its horrors, and make it as humane as the cir- 
cumstances would allow. When the proper time came, 
he issued . s Proclamation of Emancipation — not too 



25 

soon, certainly not too late. At four different times 
he offered honorable terms to the insurgents, which 
they as often rejected. His last thoughts were devoted 
to the subject of pacification, in such a way, as to make 
it not too sxallinix to the humiliated foe, and to secure 
the permanent welfare of the country. He was mag- 
nanimous alike to friend and enemy, and it appears as 
though the South, in its blind madness, had stricken 
down its best benefactor. The days of mourning will 
come to the South, in the mansions of the planters, as well 
as in the cabins of the freedmen, that so vile a murder has 
been perpetrated upon so good and wise a man. 

He has died— not to himself alone. He has died, 
and humanity accepts the sacrifice and mourns for its 
necessity, but accepts it as the surety of deliverance 
from many a woe. He lived to " see of the travail of 
his soul," and was " satisfied." He has done his work 
faithfully and well. A nation weeps his departure as 
it feels the greatness of its bereavement. The civilized 
world expresses its sympathy. The powers and peoples 
of Europe vie with one another in doing honor to his 
memory. A martyr to the great cause of human free- 
dom, he is embalmed forever in the grateful esteem of 
mankind. He has died for duty, for truth, for the wel- 
fare of man, in the faithful service of God. Yet dying 
so, he lives forever. 

We must accept the conclusion, that his work, so far 
as his bodily strength and j^resence in the world are 
concerned, was completed. I do not agree, however, 
with those who complacently say, that we needed a 
sterner and stronger hand than his to perform the labor 
of reconstruction, and the necessary acts of justice. 
With all my respect for the present Chief Idagistrate, 



26 

I do not believe that lie is a wiser, or a juster, or a 
firmer man than Mr. Lincoln. I do not believe that 
reconstruction will be made any easier, or that justice 
will be more faithfully administered. Mr. Lincoln had 
the rare faculty of doing justice without the slightest 
particle of revenge. It is precisely that Avhich we 
should now be taught. This great Ile2:)ublic — acknowl- 
edged now to be one of the three most pow^erful States 
of the world — must do nothing in the spirit of ven- 
geance. It must occupy that high position, which — 
even in inflicting merited punishment upon the authors 
of its wrongs — shall not be sullied, before the eye of 
God and man, by a single passionate or vindictive deed. 
Its moral poAver must be as conspicuous as its material. 
Mr. Lincoln, above all others, was the man to educate 
us and lead us up to that high plane of national life. 
Neither do w^e need to show a threatening aspect to for- 
eign nations. The peace of the world, for the years to 
come, lies in the charge of the American Republic. 
Whenever we choose to speak the word, the desolations 
of war will fidl upon the earth. But the w^ord which, 
I trust, this nation will speak forevermore, is : " The 
Eepublic, it is Peace.-' Who was better fitted than 
Mr. Lincoln to speak it ? No ! do not say that we needed 
some one else. I believe that he, who was so wise and 
true and just amid so many difficulties, and who was 
so successful in every trial of administration, would 
have proved himself equal to any and every emergency 
of the State — equally wise, true, just and successful. 
As he has led us through the past, so would he have 
led us through the future. Had God seen fit to thwart 
the assassin's aim and spare the President's life, he 
would have retired to his quiet home in Illinois, at the 



'Si 

close of his official term, followed by the blessings of* a 
nation which he had redeemed, and the respect of a 
world which had learned to honor his greatness I 

We know now how such sacrifices as he and our 
fellow countrymen have made, work out a national tri- 
umph. The intelligence that has come to us during 
the last few days has assured us that the rebellion has 
been crushed, that peace has come, and that order and 
good government will henceforth prevail among us. 
Great troubles, indeed, we have had. Great losses 
have we suffered. Great labors have we performed. 
We shall now be able to reap the reward of our fidelity. 
It is a source of some satisfaction, both to me and to 
you, to feel, that throughout the course of this struggle, 
we have here occupied no doubtful position, and have 
indulged in no despondent or distrustful thoughts. 
The instructions from this pulpit, in common with the 
pulpits of our Unitarian churches, with one or two ex- 
ceptions, have always been, I am glad now to say, 
hopefid, encouraging, and loyal. I cannot now recall 
any spoken or written word which expressed any want 
of confidence, at any time, in the members of the Gov- 
ernment, or the commanders of our armies, with but a 
single exception. It has been my constant aim to lend 
my support to the measures which have been adopted 
for the preservation of the Republic. It has sometimes 
become my duty to rebuke that captious and fault-find- 
ing spirit which has occasionally made itself manifest in 
this community. I am glad to know that here we 
have given no uncertain sound. Why have I thus 
spoken ? It has been because I believed in the power 
of civilization, humanity and truth ; because I be- 
lieved in the Providence of God, who does not permit 



28 

the wrong to triumph. Then it has been because I be^ 
lievecl in the principles of liberty and union, which the 
fathers of the Kepublic pronounced ; because I believed 
in the fidelity and loyalty of the American people ; be- 
cause I believed, in the very inmost part of my soul, 
in the wisdom, the patriotism, and the ability of him 
whom the people had chosen for their leader. I be- 
lieved — therefore have I spoken ! 

Though that leader has gone away from us, yet we 
cannot have lost his guidance. The work which he 
had prosecuted so well will still go forward to its 
perfect result. He destroyed the institution of sla- 
very. It is for us to expel from our hearts and 
minds those prejudices of race and color which make 
slavery possible. The State will free itself from every 
fetter ; will effectually wipe out every vestige of barba- 
rism and slavery which may now exist ; will go on in 
its career of national virtue and national greatness, till 
it shall crown the summit, and the light of its glory 
shall shine over all the world. The nations shall come 
to its light, and humanity to the brightness of its rising. 
Then, in that consummate hour, when the people shall 
examine the long list of worthy men, to find the name 
of him, to whom they owe the most, and whom they love 
the best, their grateful eyes will rest with one accord 
upon the name, side by side with that of Washington 
himself — the name of this " king of men," Abraham 
Lincoln ! 



LB S 12 



